LongBeachReport.com | LBReport.com | Editorial: How To Keep LB's Summer Band Concerts in Our Parks

(Aug. 7, 2010) -- Long Beach needn't lose the summertime experience of bringing a blanket to the park and enjoying a big old-fashioned band -- with trumpets, trombones, flutes, tubas, clarinets, saxophones and percussion (and even a glockenspiel) -- playing everything from great American standards to Sousa marches.

The music is priceless, but it has become prohibitive to have professional musicians play it.

There is a solution, because the music itself is bigger than any one person and any one band.

LBReport.com proposes that the Long Beach Junior Concert Band -- an institution with nearly sixty years of history -- perform for several of the summer concert weeks, making the costlier Municipal Band more affordable for private sector sponsorships and donations (and perhaps with a more budget-friendly level of City Hall support).

www.lbjcb.org

The LB Junior Concert Band, a non-profit entity, is open to young people from 12-21 and has deep roots here. We think it would receive applause and cheers for taking on the task of providing summer band concerts in our parks while the costlier Muni Band performs for a week or two. This would maintain the Muni Band's tradition, and Long Beach's summer band concerts, which are a quality of life item for many people. The net result is what counts, and in our opinion it's preserving summer band concerts in the park for friends, family and neighbors.

Financially, it would be more affordable for private donors or sponsors to pay for a few weeks of the professional Muni Band musicians (a pretty nice gig: less than two hours of playing for roughly $15,000 for each show).

Musically, it could inspire more young people to pick up a trumpet or a clarinet...and to practice and enjoy and play music than spans generations, that goes beyond what's now on an I-POD.

Make no mistake: LB's Junior Concert Band is a formidable musical force. It drew cheers in the Hollywood Christmas Parade and Belmont Shore's Christmas Parade (as Band Director Marvin Marker marched alongside).

Mr. Marker, in red blazer and baseball cap.
LBReport.com video screen save

Mr. Marker's sudden passing hasn't diminished the band; a new generation of young people is coming forward. LB Junior Concert Band Board President Jim Mitchell says the Band recently performed by invitation in Henderson, Nevada.

Henderson, Nevada?!? Don't you think the Long Beach Junior Concert Band deserves the chance to perform here, to fill our parks with music that warms our hearts regardless of who plays it?

To hear our conversation with LB Junior Concert Band board chair Mitchell, click here.

Although LB Parks & Rec has hired some musical acts to perform in some parks, they don't draw crowds as large because they can't do what a full band can when brass, woodwinds and percussion combine to perform the The Stars & Stripes Forever.

We think the City Council should invite the LB Junior Concert Band to play for some or most of the summer concert season. We know some of its members are school kids; we can live with an occasional flat or sharp note; they're not yet pros, but they're very talented.

Give them an audition if they'll accept the challenge. El Dorado Park on Aug. 20 (before or midway through an already scheduled appearance of the Elm Street Band) would be fine with us...or any other time.

Band concerts in our parks with the Long Beach Jr. Concert Band and the Municipal Band sharing the summer concert period can work.

LB City Hall shouldn't let the music die...and it doesn't have to.

LBReport.com welcomes our readers' views on this below.